Employee Engagement

January 26, 2009

The world continues to buzz about the power of social networking sites, blogs, online forums and other internet-based groups that promote communities of shared knowledge, ideas and opinions. Would it surprise you to know that there is a Facebook™ group called "Ergonomists of the World"? Created a few years ago, this group has more than 300 members and is comprised of Health, Safety, Human Factors and Ergonomics Professionals and Researchers from around the world.

Also, the ever growing LinkedIn online community has excellent groups of Ergonomics, H&S, and Human Factors Professionals. If you are on LinkedIn, we suggest you check out the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society group. You may find several Humantechers there as participants and contributors!

In keeping with the theme of promoting communities of shared knowledge, we encourage everyone to take advantage of these resources - start by checking out these two groups. If you know of any other such groups, please feel free to share them.

November 06, 2008

In a recent blog post from Blog 4 Safety (How do you communicate safety issues to your employees?), the use of posters to communicate safety issues was emphasized, along with techniques on selecting posters. I found the title of this topic to be a little misleading due to the lack of information presented.

Where we have found success in communication is incorporating safety messages into existing initiatives or meetings, such as reserving space on employee boards that are dedicated to ergonomics or reserving the first 15 minutes at an all-employees meeting to discuss new ergonomic improvements or safety initiatives.

Showing off the efforts of a continuous improvement team along a metrics board can help grab the attention of all levels of the organization. Always remember that aesthetics comes into play, so use lots of pictures and visuals. Consider the location of your messages as well, remembering where employees will be spending most of their time during breaks. Several companies I've worked with have incorporated media systems into their cafeterias, which have always been a favorite for displaying ergonomic projects. Convenience in the selected locations is also key. For example, positioning safety observation comment boxes directly at employee ID swipe in/out areas makes it easier to attain input and acts as a daily reminder that employee feedback is valuable. Leveraging daily pre-shift meetings to notify employees about new safety procedures and ergonomic equipment can also help with extending the message to a large population.

So, although posters can help to communicate safety and ergonomics, keep in mind the internal methods that can also be utilized and never forget that there is no better alternative than face-to-face conversations.

November 04, 2008

Carmine Coyote at Slow Leadership recently highlighted a blog post by Freek Vermeulen, an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the London Business School, which pointed out that in reference to management strategies of the past 10-15 years (TQM, Six Sigma, Job Enlargement, etc.)...

"there's little or no hard evidence that they add anything to company performance" and "none of these techniques seemed to have produced any positive benefit on corporate results, despite containing what sometimes looked like little more than basic common sense".

To anyone that has worked for or with large organizations in the last decade, this should not be a surprise. The "flavor of the month" fails for one of two reasons:

the initiative is slow to show results

the initiative is not driven into the culture from the top down

Let me address the slowness factor first. In many situations, these management strategies involve initiation, definition, and completion of projects that may take weeks, months or even years to close. This long lead time, from initiation of the project to the point where tangible improvements are achieved is not cost effective nor does it contribute to a culture of improvement (were you ever sitting in your office and the landscaping crew starting working outside your window? In the beginning its distracting, but eventually it just fades into the background. Compare this to the continual drumbeat of the latest corporate initiative). Front line employees and senior management want the same thing, improvements and improvements now. Simply put, if you did something for weeks or years and you didn't see any results, would your heart be in it?

In terms of creating a culture, we all know what's important to your boss is important to you...the only way these types of initiatives work is when everyone has performance objectives associated with the plan from the top of the organization down to the foot soldiers, and what's more, they all understand their roles. This will not only drive completion of the tasks necessary for the strategy to be successful, but it is also the best way to create a culture in an organization where one currently does not exist.

A quote from Vermuelen's post really flushes out a key issue:

"Finally the piece-de-resistance: The influence of the adoption of popular management techniques on a CEO's compensation package (salary and bonus)...Yep, you guessed it, and the effects were very strong. If a CEO's firm adopted one of the popular management techniques, his compensation went up."

What Vermuelen found was that the mere appearance of one of these popular programs was enough to give the CEO credibility with investors and the Board of Directors that would merit higher pay. No results, just the effort. Is it any wonder why these programs fail?

Lastly, Carmine Coyote noted, "what all fashionable management fads and techniques seem to have in common is that they promise a quick fix based on a simple recipe"

Unfortunately, too often, the recipe looks a lot better than it actually tastes. All powerpoint, no results.

The base supposition that employees are resistant to change may be flawed. Actually, most people are naturally resistant to change when the change is made to them, not by them. A key element for successful change is to include people in the process.

Our experience with changing processes (i.e. Lean), altering the workplace and work practices, or changing attitudes and behaviors, has shown that success is primarily dependent upon employee engagement. When people have been included as part of the process that identifies the need for change and are involved in selecting and implementing the necessary actions, they are supportive and many times passionate about change. In turn, they are the best change agents for others.

Planning, communication and ensuring staff are all important. Employee engagement is critical.

July 15, 2008

Posting a company's Safety Policy, Commitment to "Green" business practices, or a Corporate Responsibility report on a corporate web site is becoming a common practice, especially with Fortune 1000 companies and other global organizations. These public declarations to employee safety, public health, and environmental stewardship are typically just a mouse click away from the list of a company's senior leadership and board of directors. How often do these lists include the senior executive(s) with ultimate responsibility and accountability for EHS performance?

Does your EHS leadership have a face?

If your top health and safety leader is not a corporate officer, is EHS really that important to the success of your organization?

An ongoing struggle for all EHS programs is engaging employees and middle management (and keeping them engaged) in following safe work practices and standards. True leaders provide examples that influence the actions of others (hence the term leader). Visible, focused and consistent EHS Executive Leaders demonstrate care of employees, value to EHS stewardship, and commitment to policies and statements in their actions.

The statement "lead by example" may seem overused but it remains applicable. If your organization makes public your EHS policies and positions through web sites, certifications (ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001) and statements to employees, then follow-through and visible action is essential to demonstrate commitment. Too many times, we meet employees, supervisors and managers who assume the EHS manager or staff are fully responsible for controlling the hazards, aspects and impacts of the company's operations. Too many well-meaning and committed organizations proudly show and communicate the face of Quality, Human Resources, R&D, IT, and Finance and miss the chance to demonstrate a personal commitment to EHS.

If safety and health is an essential component of running your business (and what business can run without a workforce that is healthy?) doesn't it deserve a visible leader?

June 24, 2008

Listening is the doorway to superior leadership for every executive, manager and supervisor. It is also the doorway to gaining the commitment of subordinates and can be considered the most important of all leadership skills.

Leadership at its best is a coherent strategy to motivate employees to utilize their full brainpower in performing their work; to be highly creative, productive, motivated and committed. Leadership fails when it leaves employees turned off, poorly motivated, often present in the workplace but with their brains checked at the door (presenteeism). The difference can be how we approach the art of listening.

On my first trip to Asia over a decade ago, a senior manager shared with me the Chinese kanji, 'Ting', representing the verb 'to listen'. He explained that this was a significant symbol in that it explains the difference between simply hearing and truly listening. By integrating representations of not only our ears, but of our eyes, our heart, and the selfless act of undivided attention, the Chinese have truly captured the essence of listening. As we see here, the symbol's five elements embody this entire concept in a single character:

Ear - we need ears to listen

Eye - the non-listener looks elsewhere

Heart - effective listening involves being receptive to the feelins that are being communicated as well as the facts

Undivided Attention - active listeners focus their attention on the person that is speaking

King - true listening treats the other person as someone special, as someone who is important

Standard-issue leadership and generic "vanilla listening" are so prevalent in our workplaces that spoofs of this ineffectual style have crept into pop culture (Dilber, The Office)

These leaders quickly identify themselves through surface-level involvement with employee disengagement as a by-product of their actions. So how can you improve your leadership?

The first step is to go out and LISTEN, listen to complaints about problems, find out more about them and fix them. This simple process of detection and correction teaches workers how to solve problems, how to treat customers and how to use value standards in the workplace.

Listen at the right level. Managers should not spend all of their time in the office politicking with the next level up; they should be in contact with the front line employees.

Listen with a focus on praise which helps overcome the natural barrier between management and employees. Develop a sense of pride among employees with regard to the company's product and the importance of championing the find-it, fix-it, and check for success model.

Understand, and have real awareness of, the real needs of your employees, providing compassion for such things as time pressures, family events and even something as simple as their daily transportation to/from work.

Always be mindful of your tone of voice and attitude. Listen to employees and believe that they can find a way to be more effective in their own environments. Let them know your are the supplier of support and they are your customers.

So get out with your people, listen to their complaints and suggestions, and take corrective action. Corrective action may just be an explanation of certain details unknown to the worker. Whatever it is, corrective action must be timely, of unquestionably high quality and must include follow-up to ensure that your intended fix is acceptable.

Highly motivated and committed workers continually strive for excellence. The more committed they are, the more they act to find resolutions to problems. Low committment often leads to thought and energy being placed on causing problems, not correcting them.

June 19, 2008

Steve Connolly of Analysys Mason, gave an insightful strategic overview to the cost of attrition in a post by the folks at Recrion...Steve maintains that companies need to focus less on the word ATTRITION and more on the principal of ENGAGEMENT.

A tourist in a big city once asked three workers at a construction site what they were doing. The first said, "I'm making $30 an hour." The second said, "I'm laying bricks." The third replied, "I'm helping to build a cathedral." At an early point in their career, each of these laborers had the vision that they were building a cathedral. Unfortunately, over time, that shared vision was taken away from some of them by the harsh realities of their work. How do we create a high level of engagement?

The way to create that level of engagement is to first know you are asking the wrong question. By the very fact that people have the initiative to apply for work, then come to your work place day after day should tell you that the vision and engagement are already there and are yours to lose. People will self-select through a type of social Darwinsm and those that chose to malinger for a profession will not darken your doorstep for very long. The rest, the people with big hearts and smiling faces, want to do well. They want to be part of something they can be proud of; your job is to let them.

From Franz Schneider's upcoming book The 30-Inch View of People, Performance, Productivity and Profit

June 13, 2008

Wally Bock raises an interesting point in "Designing work as if people mattered" at his Three Star Leadership blog. Unlike the specs for say a carriage bolt, people's "specifications" vary and therefore job descriptions must take that variability into account.

As Wally points out, carriage bolts do not change after we buy them, and they are consistent in size and strength. People are not. That is why employers have an obligation to understand the capabilities and limits of human performance and ensure that work tasks and the work environment fit within the normal operating range of a person.

If you utilize a carriage bolt outside of it's tolerances, it will not perform consistently and will wear out. When a person operates outside of their physical capabilities for force, posture, frequency, and duration, they too will wear out. The visible result of wearing out is often not that visible. Wearing out may take the form of presenteeism (at work but not working to potential), absenteeism, injuries or illness. Furthermore, degrading human performance may show up in reduced productivity or quality. The most visible sign, injury, as akin to the carriage bolt breaking, and that is too late.

The bottom line is; base your expectations (flexible expectations) of what people can do on a solid understanding of human limits and capabilities. By eliminating stressors through a "best-fit" workplace, employees can concentrate on what they do best: make decisions, diagnose problems, inspect work, etc.

June 09, 2008

It’s difficult to say which is the sadder situation; a county (community) hospital having excess operations (taxpayer) money in hand or the quality issues described in the Star –Telegram articles that Mark Graban from Leanblog discussed the other day.

That the Tarrant County Hospital Commission can permit either situation is galling. County Hospitals such as John Peter Smith are responsible for delivering quality care for those most challenged by caring for themselves, the local Medicaid and Medicare populations.

JPS is part of the Federal network agency Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS has a fully staffed and funded Office of Clinical Standards & Quality (OCSQ) that “Provides leadership and coordination for the development and implementation of a cohesive, agency-wide approach to measuring and promoting quality and leads the Agency's priority-setting process for clinical quality improvement”.

CMS is a key member of The Hospital Quality Alliance, a public-private collaboration “to improve the quality of care provided by the nation's hospitals by measuring and publicly reporting on that care”.

The goal of the program is “to identify a robust set of standardized and easy-to-understand hospital quality measures that would be used by all stakeholders in the healthcare system in order to improve quality of care and the ability of consumers to make informed healthcare choices”.

And if we’re to follow recent survey results, as of January 2008, JPS is performing well. Let’s look at one measure - the indicators for surgical infection and complication prevention that reports on the hospital's overall performance for improving patient safety by reducing post-surgery complications.

JPS, in spite of the newspaper’s findings, outperformed the national average in six out of six categories.

Core Measures

JPS Health NetworkJanuary ‘08 Preliminary Results

National Average*

Prophylactic antibiotic received 1 hour prior to incision

89.8%

82%

Prophylactic antibiotic selection

97.9%

90%

Antibiotic discontinued within 24 hour post surgery end

91.7%

78%

Surgery patients with VTE prophylaxis ordered

92.2%

79%

Patients received appropriate VTE prophylaxis within 24 hours prior to surgery to 24 hours after surgery

84.3%

75%

Patients on beta blockers PTA who received beta blockers perioperatively

86.7%

83%

*Source: Hospital Quality

Alliance

The national situation for Medicaid and Medicare patients must be a tragedy on a very large scale if, in the eyes of some, JPS is a profitable, above average quality performer.

Just shows that elaborate oversight, frequent benchmarking quality surveys and all the mission and value statements can not substitute for the one key ingredient of knowing what the client (patient AND staff) wants (needs) and committing to its delivery. Execution means succeeding at the 30-Inch level!

May 22, 2008

The writings of Sun Tzu, which are collectively called The Art of War, are over 2,500 years old, and yet they are as applicable today as they were when they were first written.Throughout Sun Tzu's writings are the themes of leadership, engagement, communication, planning and preparation, and discipline.

Sun Tzu claims that to succeed in war, one should have full knowledge of one's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the enemy. Lack of either might result in defeat. The Art of War was written in a universal style that draws parallels between the challenges in business and those of war, specifically:

§How are you collecting data and does it originate from both internal and external sources?

§Do you have the right data on your dashboard or are you still largely relying on business intuition?

§Can you discern any patterns, gain insight, and extract meaning from the data?

§How is your organization incentivized to positively respond to and learn from the resultant information?

Modern businesses have deployed automation and information technologies that have led to vast amounts of data becoming available.The true art is sieving through large amounts of data, extracting useful information and turning that information into actionable knowledge with an appreciation and understanding of the resultant outcome.

Sound leadership advice on where to start the journey towards business wisdom comes from the first chapter of Art of War.Sun Tzu says, "If people are treated with benevolence, faithfulness and justice, then they will be of one mind and will be glad to serve," which shows that workers simply want to be treated fairly and have the faith of their co-workers and supervisors. Sun Tzu tells us that we first must know ourselves and there is no better way for leaders to learn than by getting out of the office and seeing what is really happening in your environment.

Once out of your office, leadership can adopt a consistent and straightforward continuous improvement approach to discern the root cause of successes or problems.

§Finally, how do we fix the problem and who is going to be responsible for verifying that it is fixed?

This simple leadership act can be a key to success or failure of your continuous improvement efforts and also serve as positive reinforcing behavior for employees to remain engaged.This is an important lesson as durable gains in productivity and quality accrue only when your workforce is engaged in a continuous improvement culture. The true goal here is not just to transform manufacturing, but rather to create "thinking people" who are glad to serve and sustain the process.

Without engaged employees, continuous improvement initiatives die on the vine.Companies experiencing positive bottom-line effects from their efforts in continuous improvement are doing so because they have learned and adopted the tactics that Sun Tzu described long ago about tapping into a self-reinforcing cycle of respectful employee engagement.

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About Humantech

For nearly 30 years, global companies have relied on Humantech for workplace improvements. By combining the science of ergonomics and our unique 30-Inch View™—where people, work, and environment intersect— we deliver practical solutions that impact safety, quality, and productivity. At Humantech, we believe people make productivity happen.

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